Je ne regrette rien - taking comfort from complexity

Over recent years, many articles have been writtenabout the need to "defeat", "overcome", or otherwise "eliminate" organizational complexity. By this, the writers invariably mean the overly-complicated structures, systems, and procedures that tend to grow up over time and which can outlive their usefulness.

Simplifying unnecessarily complicated ways of working is to be welcomed, of course. But this surface-level, as-designed view of organization says nothing about the underlying dynamics of what's going on. That is, the complex social process of everyday human interaction, through which organization is continuously (re)enacted and outcomes emerge in practice.

Immersed in the 'game of life'

Taking this further, these same dynamics are also at play in our living of life more generally. That is to say, beyond the natural world, everything thathappens in our life emerges from the world-wide interplay of our own and everyone else's ongoing interactions. Some of these are intentional. Others are habitual. Some are planned. Others occur spontaneously or by chance. Some are bound up in the full trappings of formality, whereas others reflect informal networks of relationships. Some are acted out in person. Others exist solely in our imaginations. This relational process will sometimes be co-operative. At other times the exchanges will be competitive and conflictual. Rarely will the differences be clear-cut. Even though we are conscious of a lot of what is going on, large chunks of our lives remain outside our conscious awareness.

In this way, we seek to go on together, as interdependent beings immersed in the 'game' that we call life.We each act, moment-to-moment, into this continuously emerging future. A future that carries with it a sense of everyday predictability whilst, at the same time, being ultimately unknowable. In doing so, we participate in the co-creation of that very future as it is emerging -in all of its beauty and richness; ugliness and poverty; hope and despair.The values, ethics and morality of our actions are also interwoven with, and emerge from, our everyday interactions with others, near and far. People who are similarly engaged in finding their way through the highs and lows of their own lives, whether with a sense of compassion and respect for others or fuelled by evil intent.

C'est la vie

Despite this ongoing state of not knowing, we can say with certainty that we've managed to make it this far. At least, for me, at the time of writing and, if you're reading this, for you too!

Our ongoing interactions with other people - fondly remembered and long forgotten - are both the product and process of thelives we are living. Within this, whatever missed opportunities, mistakes made, and unfulfilled expectations we might each be able to point to, there will no doubt be aspects of our present lives that we would not want to wish away under any circumstances.

Importantly, those things that we value most about today have not just come to pass in spite of the less-than-perfect episodes from our past, but also as a consequence of them.

These various happenings, arising from the flowing together of our own and others' hopes and aspirations, fears and concerns, choices and omissions, good deeds and bad, have brought us to where we are today. Both those things that we are keen to speak about and others that we might be less willing to acknowledge. Wherever and whenever people are involved, these complex social dynamics are always in play. Things are never merely simple or complicated. They are always complex.

This complexity is not something that we can "overcome", "defeat", or otherwise design-out, even if we wanted to.So, if our conscience is clear as regards the way in which we've set out to 'play the game', we should not regret what we have or haven't done. Or what did or didn't happen in the past. Instead, we should take comfort in the fact that it is out of this complex social process that all of today's 'good bits' - those that we would not want to wish away under any circumstances - have come to pass. That, as they say, is life!

Comments

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Lovely post, thank you Chris! When I wrote my PhD thesis about Physicians'engagement for improvement work, Ralph Stacey's writings about complex responsive processes added another dimension to the analysis. I believe he is also part of your phronetic backbone.

Your final lines made me remember how I concluded the thesis: I associated this humbling learning endeavor with a special sentence, energizing and soothing all at the same time, written by the 2011 Nobel Laureate in literature Tomas Tranströmer (Romanska Bågar, from the 1989 collection of poems called ”För levande och döda”).

You´ll never be complete, and that´s as it should be. (Du blir aldrig färdig, och det är som det skall)

A "lovely" response, too, Fredrik, if I can borrow your very pleasing term.

You are, of course, correct about my broad alignment with the "complex responsive process" thinking of Ralph Stacey, Chris Mowles, and their current and past colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire. However, I don't tend to use this term in my own writing, to describe the dynamics of organization, for the reasons that I set out in a 2013 post: http://informalcoalitions.typepad.com/informal_coalitions/2013/03/describing-the-complexreality-of-everyday-human-interaction.html.

As I commented then, I think that we've 'pitched our tents in broadly the same space. And that our thoughts differ only at the margins.